"
Two of the men seemed to waver, but the maddened cry of the priest detained
them. "They seek to murder me," he screamed. "Would you desert God's Church
and burn in torment for ever?" He hurled himself on Gaspard, who caught his
wrist so that the knife tinkled on the high road while the man overbalanced
himself and fell. The next second the mellay had begun.
It did not last long. The troopers were heavy fellows, cumbrously armed,
who, even with numbers on their side, stood little chance against two swift
swordsmen, who had been trained to fight together against odds. One Gaspard
pulled from the saddle so that he lay senseless on the ground. One
Champernoun felled with a sword cut of which no morion could break the
force. The two others turned tail and fled, and the last seen of them was a
dust cloud on the road to Paris.
Gaspard had not drawn his sword. They stood by the bridge of a little
river, and he flung Guise's jewel far into its lilied waters.
"A useful bauble," he smiled, "but its purpose is served.
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